Kwan Tee Pagoda, Nam Shun Fooy Koon, Port Louis毛里求斯南顺会馆关帝庙
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Mauritius · Port Louis · Port Louis · Adjacent to the Champ de Mars racecourse
- First built
- First built in 1895 · Extensively rebuilt in the late 1970s, with the new building completed and opened in November 1980; the original deity images and interior fittings ordered from China were preserved and reinstalled.
Overview
The Kwan Tee Pagoda of the Nam Shun Fooy Koon was built in 1895 within the grounds of the Nam Shun Fooy Koon (South Shun Benevolent Society), immediately adjacent to the Champ de Mars racecourse in Port Louis. The Nam Shun Fooy Koon originated in 1859 as a mutual-aid society spontaneously formed by immigrants from Nanhai and Shunde; its first president after founding was Affan Tank Wen. Two years after its formal registration (1896), among the 708 Chinese who arrived aboard the steamer "Wuotan," most likewise came from Taishan, Nanhai and Shunde. The society's purpose was to unite hardworking and diligent Chinese and to establish a fund to relieve the sick, the destitute and widows. The pagoda houses three altars: Guandi (Kwan Tee), the God of Wealth (Choy Sun), and an altar for the deliverance of ancestors (Jiu Sin Sun Wai); it is a custom among the Cantonese community, after burning incense at the cemetery, to bring the incense sticks back and place them at the pagoda's altar, so that those unable to visit the grave in person may still make an offering. In the late 1970s the wooden structure was rebuilt in concrete, with the deity images and interior fittings originally ordered from China entirely preserved and reinstalled; the new building opened in November 1980. The great festivals are held every year during the first lunar month, on the birthday of Mazu (the third or fourth lunar month), and on the birthday of Guandi (the eighth lunar month).
Highlights
- Built in 1895 within the grounds of the Nam Shun Fooy Koon
- The Nam Shun Fooy Koon originated in an 1859 mutual-aid society of Nanhai and Shunde immigrants
- Houses three altars — Guandi, the God of Wealth, and the deliverance of ancestors
- Custom of bringing cemetery incense sticks back to the pagoda's altar
- New building opened in November 1980